We’re Almost There–Let’s Unify for Thompson Divide
Editor’s note: Since this article was published in our winter newsletter, the Forest Service released a draft plan that would protect the Thompson Divide from future oil and gas leases for the next 20 years. View the press release here.
This winter, the Forest Service is expected to release a draft environmental assessment regarding a proposed 20-year moratorium on future oil and gas leasing for the Thompson Divide.
As you may know, the Divide is a 225,000-acre swath of public lands stretching south from Glenwood Springs through the Sunlight Ski Resort, and then west from Carbondale through Coal Basin. Wilderness Workshop has been working to protect this special place for nearly two decades, and it’s an understatement to say we are excited to see this process moving forward.
The draft environmental assessment is part of a two-year public process conducted by both the Forest Service and the Department of the Interior. If finalized, the protections would be a major victory for our community, following on the heels of extensive advocacy from ranchers, mountain bikers, hunters and conservationists. Just this past year, 73,500 public comments were submitted advocating for the prohibition of future oil and gas leasing on the Divide. Once the draft is released, we’ll be back in touch asking for you to submit a comment–your voice is a crucial part of achieving this protection.
The Divide is a special place. Bighorn sheep, moose and elk call the Divide home, and it is considered a premier national backcountry-hunting area. Forty-nine percent of the Thompson Divide—about 110,600 acres—is “among the most high-value ecosystems in all of Colorado,” according to a report by Conservation Science Partners and the Center for American Progress, and 34,000 acres in the Divide receive top scores for ecological connectivity, which means high-value, unfragmented habitat. As wildlife populations continue to decline due to climate change and human use of wild landscapes, protecting places like the Thompson Divide takes on even greater importance.
49% of the Thompson Divide—about 110,600 acres—is “among the most high-value ecosystems in all of Colorado.”
Although a mineral withdrawal would offer crucial temporary safeguards for the coming two decades, lasting protection of the area hinges on enactment of the CORE Act, a piece of legislation that would secure permanent protection for our beloved landscape. We expect this bill to receive a ‘mark-up’ in the Senate in the near future, as Wilderness Workshop and our allies continue to press Congress to pass this legislation.
